Not long ago, me and the bros decided to call Kota Kinabalu, or KK “The sexy town“. Why use ‘town’ instead of ‘city? Well, it sounds nicer in ‘town’. Kuching we call “The City with a Soul” as many foreign visitors including the Ambassador of Bosnia says that Kuching is just that.
Well, lets start about the good things which KK has to offer. For starters, the city is vibrant, lively and is a magnet for shoppers with international brands and large shopping malls. Think tHe Spring Kuching is huge, well.. they have at least 3 shopping malls which can challenge tHe Spring, and I bet at least one which can house tHe Spring. Anyway, we do not call KK the ‘sexy town’ for no reason. The fact that the town sits at the sea side, and if practically full with gorgeous girls makes the label very much fitting. The KK Waterfront itself isn’t as long as the 5km Kuching Waterfront which has been extended, but it is by far the most exciting yet interesting waterfront in Malaysia. There are clubs, live bad performances and just simple eateries along the coast, hence making it the best place to chill out. There’s also a police kiosk not far, so it’s pretty safe by any standards. I’m not into clubs, but I love live band performances. If only Starbucks has a Kuching Waterfront outlet. That would be really nice…
Anyway, in the middle of town, there’s this place called Segama which caters for those whom just like to chill out, and across it is Gaya Street which offers live performances as well. I manage to notice all this because Matthew brought me out, and well.. it was 11pm, and the place was still very happening! And it was a weekday!
The cons of KK comes down to corruption. While KK boast of so much development, and I can say has changed by leaps in the past 5 years… buildings are poorly built, hence a huge sign of either poor maintainability, or poor building quality upon completion. The state Federal building has tiles falling apart, while the drainage system hasn’t improve if compared to the shopping mall boom. I think, my biggest disappointment would be Warisan Square which I used to hail as my favorite shopping mall of all times. Now the place/mall seems rather ‘cheap’ with everything being pushed inside the mall hence making it not as ‘exclusive’ as it used to be.There was also leaks and rubbish being visible if you really walked around the shopping blocks, and maintainance work is left undone for days. Sorry to Sabahans on my above comment. I’m just a little sad to see such thing happen, and ruin such a wonderful mall. I really hope the company which is in-charge of Warisan Square will do something to tidy up.
Anyway, my trip to KK was short because I was there on a business trip. Spent most of the time in the hotel as we had a course there on a new program under the ministry I work with. With budget cuts here and there, everything was dense in a 3 day long course. I am very keen on the new program, and I am excited to start everything as soon as possible. Managed to hang out with Matthew at Sugarbun Cafe (Not the same as Sugarbun), and later hung out with Collin, Lee and Abang at the KK Waterfront talking about our course etc, and that’s about it. Made new friends among my ministry, but didn’t have time to meet old friends due to time constrain. Will be back in the future for a real vacation… 😛
KK is ‘the’ sexy town indeed..
